ABSTRACT
Nature study was a new subject introduced to elementary school curricula throughout the English-speaking world in the 1890s and the early 1900s. An important component of the educational reform movement of the period, known internationally as the early manifestation of "New Education", nature study was supported by a considerable body of theoretical and practical literature. Taking the Australian state of New South Wales as a case study, nature study appears as a particularly significant component of the reform agenda when introduced to a new syllabus of instruction for the public schools in 1904. Nature study advocates held great hopes for the subject as education for conservation and preservation but reference to nature study in environmental histories has been sparse. A variety of primary source material was consulted in the search to uncover the significance of nature study for educational reform and environmental concern in the early twentieth century. The chapter also presents some of the key concepts of this book.
